Stairway to Heaven (and Out of Hell)
by The Bibliomaniac
Summary: An AU of season 7: "What brings you to our little town?" "My brother... Some stability will be good for us..." Honestly? Sam's still not doing so well and maybe it truly is time to retire (at least until he gets better... that will happen, right?)
1. In Which the Boys are NOT Lovers

**A/N: **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.**

**Some ground rules about this fic:**

**Firstly, I've been writing this in between classes, and ONLY in between classes, so I don't have a huge buffer. It's just a fun side project for me. With that in mind, I will post sections as I feel like it. No schedule. **

**That out of the way, some info on the story itself: This is an AU of season 7. I'm not a huge fan of writing/posting AUs, but Sam's mental stability was too interesting to let go, and I'm really not a fan of how every time something interesting happens to Sam, they Deus Ex Machina it away. Also, I found the Leviathans exceedingly dull. Thus: Castiel managed to contain the Leviathans long enough to self destruct himself (to our knowledge), taking them with him. Sam ****_did_**** let Lucifer in, ****_did_**** wind up in the psychiatric ward, but Castiel was not around to fix him. Instead, after a few days in the ward, Sam stabilized (such as it is) enough that the doctors released him (begrudgingly, admitting that they could do nothing anyway). This is where we start. Enjoy!**

At first, nobody knew them. They drove in in a black muscle car, rented that small house on the outside of town, and vanished from public view. Of course, with such a small town, they were immediately the main subject of gossip. Despite the high amount of conversation about them, there was very little known. The owner of the house didn't live in town, so they couldn't even talk to him.

The town knew there were two of them. Some people saw them drive into town and said the were good looking. Louisa Mae was telling anyone that would listen that they were gay lovers. She was the town gossip and if there was something to know about someone, she was the one to talk to. Most of the town, therefore, started calling them "the lovers in the Greyson House." No one remembered why it was called the Greyson House, but it was, and such were they named.

A few people tried to see and meet them, Louisa Mae, of course, but also the deputy (the county sheriff was based a town or two over), and when they had no luck, some of the local kids. As it turns out, Jessie was the first to meet Dean.

There was a deep rumble as 'the lovers'' car pulled up in front of her shop. She was proud of her shop: it was a grocery store, with a small general merchandise section in the back, and she had just opened up a small coffee bar. So basically, it was the main store in town. Normally, Jessie wouldn't have paid attention to a car driving up, but most cars didn't sound like *that*. *That* was the growl of a car with power, of a car with speed, of a car had no business being in a town like this.

Both 'the lovers' were in the car, but, after what looked like a short conversation, only the driver got out. The silhouette of the passenger slumped down and reclined his seat. Jessie turned her attention to the driver walking up to the shop door. Louisa Mae was right, he was a looker. He hesitated at the door, glanced back at the car, and checked the lettering on the window. Jessie quickly looked down so he wouldn't see her staring.

The shop bell tinkled and Jessie looked up again. The man grabbed one of the baskets Jessie left by the front door and started winding his way through the shop. Every so often, he would round an aisle and go back into the depths of the shop. But then, he stopped rounding the aisles. Jessie waited a few minutes, but he still didn't reappear. It wasn't as though it was a big shop... Jessie was able to look after it on her own. She only had Dave, her assistant, in the afternoons and once a weekend so she could take breaks.

Finally, she got out from behind the counter and went deeper into the shop to find her wayward customer. She found him in produce, holding a cabbage and a lettuce. He glanced up at her, then back down. A slight frown sketched across his face. "Do you need help?" Jessie asked.

"Uh... yeah," the man said sheepishly. "Which one is used for salad?"

"The lettuce," Jessie said.

Annoyance flittered across the man's face. "I know that," he said. "Which one is lettuce?" He held up the two heads.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Jessie said. "It's this one." She took the head of lettuce from the man. "Actually," she added, studying the plant, "this one isn't so good. See how it's a little brown here?" she asked, pointing. The man nodded. "You want to find one that's mostly green. Here," she said, reaching into the tray holding the other lettuces, "this one is much better."

The man put down the cabbage and studied the new lettuce, comparing it to the other one. He nodded a few times then put the old lettuce head back. "Do you think you could help me sort the other fruits and vegetables?" he asked.

Jessie hid a smile. "Certainly." She went through the various produce in his basket and showed him how to identify fresh vegetables the older ones. "Is there anything else?"

The man looked down at his basket. "Do you have tea?"

"Yes, of course." What kind of store would she be running if she didn't sell tea?

"I need the kind that's not caffeinated... that's a thing, right?" He glanced at her, unsure.

"I have decaf and herbal," she said, leading him to the beverage aisle.

"Umm..." the poor man seemed so much out of his depth.

Jessie took pity on him. "Decaf tea uses actual tea leaves. It has less caffeine than regular tea, but there is still some. Herbal tea uses different types of plants, like mint or camomile. There's no caffeine at all."

The man frowned for a moment, thinking. He then reached forward and snagged a box of herbal tea. "Sammy's gonna kill me," he muttered under his breath.

"Sammy? Is he your..." Jessie trailed off, hoping the man would fill in some information.

"My brother," the man supplied. He turned to Jessie, suddenly realizing they hadn't been introduced. "I'm Dean Winchester," he said, shuffling the basket of groceries to his left hand and extending his right.

"Jessie O'Connel," she replied, taking his hand. It was heavily calloused with a firm grip. Definitely a working man. "What brings you to our little town?" she asked, leading him to the register.

"My brother... well, we decided it would be a good time to get out of our field of work and find something quieter."

"What field of work would that be?" Jessie asked. She started ringing up his purchases.

"Little of this, little of that. We really just go where available work is, doesn't really matter what the job was exactly."

"But now you're 'retiring'?"

"Some stability will be good for us..." Dean said, trailing off quietly. He didn't look entirely convinced himself.

He paid and left. Jessie watched him get into the car and drive off.

Now, normally, she wouldn't get involved with the idle gossip about town. People liked coming to her coffee bar and talking because they knew she wouldn't blab their secrets. That being said, the idea of the rest of the town still thinking that the brothers were lovers was a little too disturbing for her. She called Louisa Mae.

**A/N: Okay, I know I had a huge chunk of A/N text above, but... I want to reiterate that I'm only posting this when I feel like it. It's a stress relief for me. De-Aged is still my primary story. This story is un-beta'd, so feedback is appreciated. I do actually have more written, but on suggestion of some friends, I'm posting less at a time, but theoretically more frequently.**

**Anyways, thanks for your support: favoriting, following, and comments are all super appreciated.**

**Cheers!**

**B**


	2. In Which Something's Wrong with Sam

A week or two later, Dean reentered her shop. His brother was not in the car this time. The only other person in the shop was the deputy, over by the coffee bar, trying to decide on what coffee beans he wanted to buy. Jessie got out from behind the counter and trailed after Dean. "Heard you got a job working for Mr. Clemens," she chirped.

Dean grunted in affirmation. "I like working with machines. It seems a good fit. 'Swhy we chose this town... he was hiring." Jessie nodded. Mr. Clemens had been looking for someone to help in his shop for ages. Cars, air conditioners, coffee machines, whatever. Mr. Clemens' shop was where you took things to get fixed. It was good to know there was someone helping the septuagenarian finally. "Sam keeps making jokes about Mark Twain," Dean added sourly. "Thinks he's funny."

Jessie hid a grin. When her 6th grade class had read Tom Sawyer, everyone had made jokes about Mr. Clemens too. "So how about Sam? Is he-"

"He's fine," Dean snapped. "Uh, that is..." he paused, embarrassed.

"I was only going to ask if he was looking for a job too," Jessie said quietly.

"No... no. Sam's... no."

Jessie studied him. Obviously, there was something wrong with Sam. She wondered vaguely what it could be. No one had met him, no one had seen him. As far as Jessie could tell, she had been the closest to knowing what he looked like, and she had only seen a shadow. The deputy suddenly called from the front of the store. He was ready to check out. Jessie left Dean to his shopping.

Slowly, Dean joined the community. He was never seen at the bar or anywhere that would have social connection; but he was welcome wherever he went, if only because he got things working again.

Sam stayed as elusive as ever. Occasionally, when Dean visited Jessie's shop, she'd see Sam's shadow in the car. But he never got out, never even rolled down the window. Sometimes, Jessie wondered what was wrong with him. Dean talked about him occasionally: Sam did this, Sam did that. But frequently, he'd suddenly cut himself off and wouldn't speak more on the subject. Painful memories, Jessie guessed.

It was a month or two after Dean and Sam moved to town. Dean was shopping, and it was one of the rare times Sam was waiting for him in the car. Jessie was explaining to Dean her decision to install a coffee bar in her shop as she rung him up. Dean's phone suddenly rang. The Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive" blared. "Sorry, I gotta get this," Dean said. Jessie shrugged and continued scanning his items.

"What's up, Sammy?" Jessie perked up slightly. Sam was on the phone? "You... wait, what? Sam, if you want to talk to her, why don't you just come inside?" There was a brief pause. "Sammy, Sammy... SAM!" Dean barked into the phone. "I'm sorry," he said in a quieter voice. "I'm sorry. That was a really dumb thing to say. Yeah. Yeah, I'll put her on. Just... is everything okay? Yeah? Okay, here she is."

Dean turned to Jessie. "Sam..." he shook his head slightly in disbelief. "Sam wants to talk to you." He proffered the phone to her.

Jessie blinked in surprise, but after a moment of hesitation, she took the phone. "Hello?"

"Jessie?" the voice on the line asked. It was a soft voice, quiet, but rough around the edges, exhausted.

"That's me," she replied.

"I'm Sam. Hi."

"Yeah, um. Hi." She glanced up. Dean was watching her carefully. He looked torn between wanting to tear the phone away from her or run out to the car. But there was also a glimmer of hope in his eyes. There was silence on the phone. "Sam?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Jessie." Sam seemed somewhat disconnected. "I know you don't know me, but I have a favor to ask."

"...What?" Jessie asked hesitantly.

There was a tired chuckle. "Nothing you'd regret, I think. It's just... Dean's been spending too much time worrying about me. He may have good reason to, but if he continues on this track, it won't help anybody."

"Okay..." Well, yeah. She couldn't deny that. Everyone in town had, at some point or another had commented on how tired and stressed Dean looked all the time.

"Next time you go out with your friends, ask him to join you?" Sam asked. "He won't go if only I tell him to. But if a few people ask him to go with them..."

"Um... I think we were planning on going out on Saturday," Jessie admitted. "Just to the bar, but..."

"That's perfect," Sam said. "Saturday is in two days? I should be a bit better by then." Jessie was a bit surprised by his tone. He seemed much more lively with the thought of Dean getting out and about.

"Alright, well, it was nice talking to you, Sam."

"Likewise. Pass me back to Dean?"

Jessie gave Dean back the phone. "Sammy? Everything okay?... Yeah? Yeah. Sure. No, I'm not brushing you off... Yeah... Okay. I'll be out in a few minutes." He hung up. He turned to Jessie. "Sam just said something about you asking me to join you. It's okay. You don't have to."

Jessie deadpanned at Dean. "Do you want to come out with me and my friends this Saturday? We're just going to the bar, but it should be fun."

"I..."

Jessie could tell he was about to turn her down. "Dean, please come out with us. We all want to get to know you better, and Sam will be only a phone call away..."

That seemed to have been the right thing to say because Dean started nodding, albeit hesitantly. "Okay, yeah. Saturday night?" He paused to think. "Sam should be feeling a bit better by then."

"Dean..." Jessie wanted to ask what was wrong with Sam, but any time she ever got close, Dean shut down immediately. Instead, she asked, "Why didn't Sam just come into the store?"

At first, she thought he wasn't going to answer. His fist tightened around the bag of groceries she had passed him and his shoulders rolled back, as though preparing for a fight. Then, all at once, he relaxed. "Sammy... Sam is not much up to dealing with people today," he said. "I was shocked he asked to talk with you."

Jessie thought he might add more, but he didn't. "But he's up to coming into town in the car?" she prodded.

Dean chuckled sadly. "He's not up to people today, but he certainly should not be alone today either." Jessie frowned. That really didn't make sense, but before she could ask, Dean shifted the bag in his arms and turned to go. "Saying of which, I really should go."

Jessie walked him to the door and watched him get into the car. Sam's silhouette turned to look out and raised a hand in greeting. Jessie waved back, wishing she could actually meet Sam in person.

**A/N: Winter break! WOOOOO! Sorry, just a little excited. :D  
><strong>**Poor, messed up Sam. Eventually, yes, he will be in the story... It may take a bit before I post the next section, being that I'm not actively writing this one right now (see previous note of a) I only write this one between classes and b) it's winter break (!)) But I am working on De-Aged, so there's that.**

**Cheers! Happy Winter Solstice Holiday of Your Preference!**


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